GOVERNMENT says it will intensify its calls for the lifting of the ban on wildlife trade and hunting in a bid to mitigate the negative effects of wildlife on human beings as well as human activities such as agriculture.
Human-wildlife conflict in communities surrounding national parks, estates and other areas with wild animals is on the increase.
Government has also said non-governmental organisations currently lobbying to maintain the ban must embrace the call.
According to the affected who are seeking solutions to the menace of wildlife, those who effected the ban on wildlife trade and hunts have neither set foot in Africa’s national parks nor come face-to-face with the sad tales of men, women and children who have suffered on account of these animals.
Calls from ‘lavish offices’ in Western capitals to stop wildlife trade and hunts have not taken into account how revenue generated from hunting and trade can better the lives of communities whose livelihoods are constantly threatened by wildlife.
Zimbabweans will, at the Conference of Parties (COP 17) Johannesburg, South Africa in September, make no apologies but demand that the ban be removed.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was established in 1975.
Its purpose is to stop illegal wildlife trade paving way for international wildlife trade permitted only under the aegis of strict CITES codes and in accordance with the consensus vote of its official delegates.
Officially launching the road map to the CITES COP 17, the Environmental Ambassador Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said the country’s move is guided by an overarching sovereign right.
“Our key proposal to the CITES secretariat, where we want the removal of all the trade restrictions imposed on our elephants and their products in 2007, is guided by an overarching sovereign right over these resources,” said VP Mnangagwa.
“Zimbabwe is worried by the tendency of developed countries to treat our elephants as the global commons.
“Zimbabwe’s wildlife is part of our national natural heritage and we know how to manage and use it for sustainable national and community development.
“Zimbabwe’s success in wildlife conservation is underpinned by the philosophy of sustainable utilisation of our natural resources which creates incentives to farmers to put their land under wildlife production and conservation.”
Ron Thomson, author, wildlife journalist and wildlife management consultant, said: “CITES is now the greatest impediment to ‘best practice’ wildlife management programmes throughout the world; and it has become the principle cause of biodiversity loss and wildlife extinctions in Africa.
“It is they who decide how the nations of the world should conduct their international wildlife trade.
“Yet very few of these delegates have any knowledge about Africa’s wildlife or its management needs.
“Nor do they understand its potential to improve the lives of our rural people.
“Furthermore, none have any accountability for the results of their decisions.
“And the ‘range-states’, alone, have to live with the consequences – good or bad.”
With hunting as the backbone of all southern Africa’s wildlife industries, there is need to allow the integration of the needs of wildlife with those of communities that host these animals. Minister of Environment, Water and Climate Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said wildlife trade has contributed significantly to the country’s economy.
“Wildlife trade, sport and trophy-hunting have contributed to Zimbabwe’s economy and provided revenue for people to conserve and protect the wildlife. Our people have done well in growing the wildlife population hence we need to sell it where possible,” said Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri.
Prisca Simango (24), whose five-year-old son lost a limb to a crocodile, said he (son) is still traumatised by the incident.
“My son Matheas lost his limb while swimming with other children in the Save River,” she said.
“When he started screaming, I ran to the river to see what was wrong since I had been washing.
“I wrestled with the croc that had gotten hold of his leg.
“I could hear the croc’s teeth tearing at my son’s limb, but did not let go of him so I could save his life.
“If it meant dying, I was prepared to die with my son.
“I managed to rescue him although he lost his limb.
“Now I must carry him all over the place because he cannot walk or go to play with his friends.”
Tani Sibanda (35), whose husband died from an elephant attack earlier this year, said: “Life has not been the same with the loss of my husband who was the breadwinner.”
CAMPFIRE Association director Charles Jonga noted with sadness that ‘since 2014 there has been a decline in hunting income since American hunters cannot go back home with their trophies as a result of hunting bans by the US’.
Emmanuel Fundira, SOAZ president, said: “There is need to harmonise the African wildlife laws because there is a global power of player-politics.
“We seem to be writing an exam whose result is already known since others determine the opportunity cost which cannot put value to the lives lost.”